1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image generating apparatus, image generation method, and a non-transitory computer readable storage medium.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, in order to analyze mass spectra obtained as a result of mass analyses, various methods and apparatus have been developed as well as software products utilizing such methods (see, for example, JP-A-2004-219140). Generally, a mass spectrum is represented as a two-dimensional chart in which mass-to-charge ratio (m/z; where m is a molecular mass and z is a charge number) is plotted on the horizontal axis and ion intensity (relative intensity) is plotted on the vertical axis.
Generally, a lipid is an ester of an aliphatic acid and an alcohol and has a structure in which CH2 repeats itself. Furthermore, a polymer is obtained by polymerization of monomers and has a monomer-repeating structure. Polymerix is known and available from Sierra Analytics, Inc. as a software product for analyzing a mass spectrum of a substance having such a repeating structure. Polymerix has a function of counting the number of spaces between ion peaks in order to estimate the mass of a monomer from a mass spectrum of a polymer.
This function makes it possible to estimate the masses of monomers constituting an unknown polymer but it is impossible to estimate terminal groups and chemical modifications of polymers. In analysis of a lipid, the repeating structure of CH2 is already known, and it is impossible to estimate terminal groups and chemical modifications. That is, with a technique of counting the number of spaces between ion peaks, it is impossible to obtain information about terminal groups and modifications of a substance having a repeating structure from a mass spectrum.
In this way, in the past, it has been difficult to analyze terminal groups and chemical modifications that are important for physical properties of a substance having a repeating structure from a mass spectrum.